As an example of this kind of ink jet printer, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication 279344/1990 discloses a printer which has a storage means installed in an ink jet printing head with an ink chamber. The storage means holds operation conditions of the printing head and ink information. The printer is operated on the basis of information which is read from the storage means in an electrically non-contact state using a read/write head installed in the printer so that the printing head is operated optimally. The printing bead of the printer in this example stores ink in the ink chamber and is mounted in a carriage in a removable state so as to have a so-called ink cartridge function.
In this example, information on the printing head and ink can be transferred to the printer in a non-contact state, so that no electrical contact is required and there is no possibility that ink may be adhered to the exposed contact, causing a defective contact. Further, to maintain the contact between the contacts, there is no need to enhance the accuracy of mechanical positions.
In the conventional printer mentioned above, although information on the printing head and ink can be read and written in a non-contact state, data cannot be read and written into the storage means from the printer when the printing head having the ink chamber is not mounted on the carriage.
Incidentally, when the number of kinds of recording apparatus is increased, it is difficult for the same ink cartridge to cover a plurality of recording apparatus. Accordingly, the kind of ink cartridge becomes different for each recording apparatus and a suitable combination of recording apparatus and ink cartridges becomes complicated. Therefore, a user cannot easily judge the compliance between recording apparatus and ink cartridges, and after all, a problem arises that until the point of time when an ink cartridge is opened and actually mounted on a carriage of a recording apparatus, the user cannot judge whether the ink cartridge is suitable to the recording apparatus or not.
When the ink cartridge is mounted on the carriage, the seal for sealing the ink feed port of the ink cartridge is broken by the ink feed needle installed on the carriage side. Then, regardless of whether the recording apparatus is suitable to the ink cartridge or not, the ink in the ink cartridge is consumed by a predetermined amount, with the result that, when the ink cartridge is not suitable, unnecessary consumption of ink is caused.
The present invention was developed to solve the aforementioned problems and is intended to provide an ink jet recording apparatus which is able to communicate with a storage element installed in an ink container before mounting the ink container on a carriage.